Woodrow Wilson

Thursday

Mar 16, 2017 at 1:05 PMMar 16, 2017 at 1:05 PM

Background/Early Life• Woodrow Wilson was born in Virginia, and before he was 20 years old his family would move to Augusta, Georgia; Columbia, South Carolina; and Wilmington, North Carolina.• Wilson studied at Davidson College in North Carolina and at the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton University. He practiced law in Atlanta for a short time before pursuing a Ph.D. in history and political science.• Wilson taught at Bryn Mawr College, Wesleyan University and Princeton, and published a number of books before becoming president of Princeton University in 1902.• The work he did at Princeton and afterward as governor of New Jersey gained him the national profile he needed to win the presidential election in 1912.How he defined the office• Shortly after taking office, President Wilson explained his vision of his role as president to a joint session of Congress, becoming the first president to address Congress personally since John Adams.• Many historians think of Wilson as the man who set the example for the modern activist president, moving the president from someone who worked on an equal or lesser level with Congress to the dominant branch of government.• The 19th Amendment was passed during Wilson’s time in office, granting women the right to vote.

Successes and failures• Among the economic policies of the Wilson administration was the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which established the Federal Reserve Board and empowered it with the ability to adjust the interest rate, a system still in place today.• World War I broke out early in Wilson’s first term, and for the first three years of the war Wilson believed America’s best approach was to follow its tradition of neutrality. But when German submarines attacked boats that resulted in the deaths of American citizens, the United States was forced to enter the war.• After the war President Wilson outlined his vision for the future in his “Fourteen Points” speech to Congress. Among his ideas was a league of nations in which he believed the United States would play a leading role. In the end the League of Nations was created, and for political reasons the United States voted to not be a part of it.• Wilson suffered a stroke late in his presidency that left him half-paralyzed and secluded in his last year in office. He did much of his business through his wife Edith.notable quote• “These ... are the things we shall stand for, whether in war or in peace: ... that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed and that no other powers should be supported by the common thought, purpose or power of the family of nations.” — from his second inaugural address March 5, 1917.